This article presents a rationale for making idioms and their use a mainstay of the second language (L2) curriculum. First, it offers a definition of the elusive term "idiom" as a point of departure for the ensuing discussion. Second, it offers five specific reasons why idiom instruction should be integrated into the L2 curriculum: here,…

This study of vocabulary comprehension strategies (VCS) is framed by the debate on L2-only instruction in the second or foreign language (L2) classroom where the teacher shares the first language (L1) of the students. Research has shown that some teachers switch to the L1 to explain lexical items while others try to explain them through L2…

This book is unique in bringing together studies on instructed second language acquisition that focus on a common question: "What renders this research particularly relevant to classroom applications, and what are the advantages, challenges, and potential pitfalls of the methodology adopted?" The empirical studies feature experimental,…

Current education standards in the U.S. require school students to read and understand complex texts from different subject areas (e.g., social studies). However, such texts usually contain figurative language, complex phrases and sentences, as well as unfamiliar discourse relations. This may present an obstacle to students whose native language…

The role of prosodic information in sentence processing is not usually addressed in second language (L2) instruction, and neurocognitive studies on prosody-syntax interactions are rare. Here we compare event-related potentials (ERP) of Chinese and German learners of English L2 to those of native English speakers and show how first language (L1)…

The current study focused on emergent processes during real-time second language (L2) writing activity in an English as a foreign language university context, examining differences in these processes across individual capacities. Participants included 22 adult Japanese learners of L2 English and their tutor. The data were collected using digital…

Research suggests that pre-task planning time provides learners with opportunities to formulate, organize, and mentally store content, thereby freeing up attentional resources during tasks (Skehan, Xiaoyue, Qian, & Wang, 2012). However, relatively few studies to date have investigated pre-task planning in a synchronous computer-mediated…

Translation of medical texts poses several challenges to undergraduate student-translators due to multiple Arabic equivalents to English medical terms. For medical terms such as "clinical," "intensive care," "polyp," and "osteoporosis" several Arabic equivalents exist. A sample of English medical terms with…

Using Englishes as a lingua franca ("EsLF") or international language among EFL learners in an out-of-class setting induces anxiety, then debilitates the intelligibility and comprehensibility of speakers. This research project reports the conceptualisation of EsLF anxiety and its effects on intelligibility and comprehensibility, with the…

Although data collection has been used in language learning settings for some time, it is only in recent decades that large corpora have become available, along with efficient tools for their use. Advances in natural language processing (NLP) have enabled rich tagging and annotation of corpus data, essential for their effective use in language…

The present study aimed to investigate second language (L2) word-level and sentence-level automatic processing among English as a foreign language students through a comparative analysis of students with different proficiency levels. As a multidimensional and dynamic construct, automaticity is conceptualized as processing speed, stability, and…

Recent advances in brain science show that adult native Japanese speakers utilize a different balance of language processing routes in the brain as compared to native English speakers. Biologically this represents the remarkable flexibility of the human brain to adapt universal human cognitive processes to fit the specific needs of linguistic and…

In the first phase of this study, how English simple past is being taught in the classroom was examined through a questionnaire. The findings report how primary and secondary teachers perceived the difficulties faced by Cantonese English as a second language learners when acquiring English simple past, and the dominant teaching approaches or…

Exploring the ways to develop a comprehensive learner-friendly telecollaborative model of learning led to the introduction of nonlinear dynamic motivation-oriented model. To foster self-regulated learner autonomy, the model aims at recruiting the potential behind formulaic sequences for L2 comprehension-production in response to immediate…

Despite all the progress that has been made in research on language learning strategies since the publication of Rubin's (1975) seminal paper on good language learners, there are areas that have been neglected by strategy experts. Perhaps the most blatant manifestation of this neglect is the paucity of research into grammar learning strategies…